Dark Side of Looking for Love on the Internet
Updated 10:54 AM EST, Tue, Jul 28, 2009
An alleged predator who used an online dating site as his personal hunting ground is behind bars after being charged with felony aggravated assault.
“I am a good guy. A true gentleman," read one of Jeff Poliskiewicz' profiles. But it took Melissa Poliskiewicz just three months of marriage to realize she needed to get away from the man she'd met last year on Match.com.
Police were called twice to the couple's Bangor, Pa., home following beatings that finally inspired Melissa to flee the man she says constantly abused her. Melissa also discovered that Poliskiewicz 's first two wives said he beat them too. So she sent letters to the District Attorney to file criminal charges.
Wife No. 2, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she never reported her beating to police but she filed for a protection from abuse order against Poliskiewicz. Wife No. 1 filed three protections from abuse orders.
But Melissa says no one listened to the story of the three wives except for Heidi Markow, an advocate for abused women.
Despite boxes of documentation, no one seemed concerned about Markow's warnings about Poliskiewicz being back on Internet dating services looking for wife number four. But then the District Attorney John Morganelli called.
Morganelli wants to know how Poliskiewicz slipped through the legal cracks over 17 years with three battered wives.
Incredibly, the woman who had driven him to court is his new girlfriend who said she had just met Jeff on Match.com. They've been talking about getting married.
For education, support, advocacy, housing, and hope to those touched by domestic abuse go to The Beginning Over Foundation.
Lu Ann Cahn and the NBC 10 Investigators were the first to break this story.
First Published: Jan 30, 2009 6:41 AM EST
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